The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 51
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Magic Saint Seraphina
Chapter 51
“Arden!”
Gasp, gasp….
I’d made it just in time.
I managed to return to the Ballroom on the twelfth and final chime of the midnight bell.
I walked slowly to hide the broken right shoe heel, limping over to stand beside Arden.
“Did you get back okay? Did you put out the fire?”
“Yes. But—”
“Hmm?”
“It wasn’t me who put it out. It was the Magic Saint.”
“The Magic Saint?”
I feigned surprise, asking the question.
“The Magic Saint appeared?”
“Yes.”
His tone was clearly disgruntled, but he admitted it readily enough.
“With some kind of perverse magic….”
Arden muttered to himself, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and scrubbing his hands vigorously.
Then he suddenly stopped.
He fixed his gaze on my face, studying it intently.
“What is it? What?”
….
“What’s wrong?”
“Now that I think about it…”
“What….”
He was asking in that unsettling way again.
“You look like something.”
What? What?
“I—I look like something?”
I stumbled over my words, stepping back a pace.
“I—I—I look like—like w-what?”
….
“I—I—I—I look like who? Ha! Nobody! I don’t look like anybody! I really don’t want to know! Ha-ha-ha!”
“I didn’t say a person.”
….
“You look like an animal I saw earlier.”
….
The animal Arden had seen was a crane.
Here I’d just helped him put out a fire, and this was the thanks I got?
I forced a smile, concealing the rot blooming in my chest.
In my mind’s eye, I was flapping my wings—hard—right at his head.
Oblivious to my dark thoughts, Arden asked, “Did you drink the Strawberry Lemon Smoothie?”
“Yeah. It was sweet and delicious. Just my taste.”
“I’m sure it was.”
“A Lantern Festival will soon take place in the Garden, so please make your way outside!”
Though midnight had passed, the ball was still in full swing—servants shouting their announcements over the chatter of tipsy revelers.
“I repeat: a Lantern Festival to commemorate the Appointment Ceremony will take place in the Garden. Please proceed outside!”
“Shall we go as well?”
“Yes.”
I glanced briefly at Chase and Marian Devocion—who had been waiting for him—as they conversed together after his return with Arden, then took my place before the doors leading to the Garden.
Once the servants confirmed that everyone had arrived, the two of them opened the doors wide.
And then—
“Oh my!”
“Good heavens!”
Gasps of astonishment erupted from those standing at the threshold.
The stone wall that came first into view as the doors opened—a white cliff face quarried wholesale from the coastal bluffs of the southern coast—bore words carved into it by something sharp.
The names of nobles who had been too busy enjoying the ball to notice that fire had broken out on imperial land—Big Nose the Duke, Welshico the Earl… (and so on)
A list written for all to see.
It’s a name to be proud of—let’s have it inscribed on the Imperial Palace wall for generations to remember.
If you stand by your actions, there’s nothing shameful about seeing your name carved into stone, is there?
Make this a day your names go down in history!
–Magic Saint Seraphina💫-」
「Oh. Right. I’ve collected all the overcoats you wore here and donated them to Plank Street.
On your way home, trembling in the cold, I hope you’ll take a moment to understand the plight of those in the slums who’ve lost their homes in late winter!」
「There wasn’t even a fire brigade in Plank Street!
Your Majesty, you should reflect on this too!」
“…….”
“…….”
The crowd went rigid.
“This… what….”
“On the Imperial Palace wall…!”
“Someone get that erased!”
“Attendant! What are you doing!”
Chaos erupted.
“Just a moment.”
Arden, having sought my leave, strode forward with measured steps.
He picked up something glimmering that had fallen near the stone wall.
A broken shoe heel.
A shard of my shoe, that opaque milky white that matched my dress color.
‘Oh, damn it!’
So it had been there the whole time!
I hid my dismay and pulled my broken right foot back as far as it would go.
‘Surely he wouldn’t gather everyone here and start checking shoe heels…. Though if anyone could pull that off, it’d be Arden.’
I watched anxiously as the shoe heel looked even smaller than its actual size in Arden’s palm.
Arden drew out a handkerchief and wrapped the heel, then slipped it into his pocket.
“Huh?”
I stared at Arden, bewildered.
Regardless, he continued.
Arden hummed as he examined the Magic Saint’s message carved at a height well below his own, then drew a quill pen from his pocket.
He reversed the pen and gripped the hard end.
Then he added something beside the message I’d written.
“Two names are missing.”
The names of so-and-so marquis and so-and-so count should be inscribed here too.
He said such things as he wrote.
“Him, him, him!”
“Who the hell is that!”
Loud voices erupted among the assembled nobility.
Arden handed the quill to an elderly gentleman—who appeared to be the Master of the Imperial Household—who’d rushed over upon hearing the commotion, then walked back toward me.
I called out to Arden while watching the household master from the corner of my eye as he accepted the quill with unusually reverent politeness.
“Arden….”
Are you sure? You don’t even have money.
If this ruins your prospects—
Arden cut short my worried words.
“Let’s go wash our hands.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you see? I touched the stone wall with my bare hands.”
“…….”
“Got dust all over them. Ugh.”
“…Right. Let’s go scrub them clean.”
* * *
[Have a Just Day☆ Magic Saint Extinguishes 10 Fires]
[Why Did the Magic Saint Have to Put Out the Flames? The Truth About the Luar Fire Brigade]
[Plank Street Arson… The Culprit Lost in the Fog]
[‘Make This a Day Your Names Go Down in History’—Magic Saint’s Message Carved into the Imperial Palace Wall]
[Vandalism of the Imperial Palace: Treason?]
“She carved the names of nobles into the Imperial Palace stone wall?!”
“That’s allowed?!”
“Of course not!”
“If we get caught, isn’t that a huge problem?!”
“More than huge!”
“But you did it anyway?!”
“What kind of nerve does she have!”
“Seraphina, what was it like?! Did you see the message the Magic Saint carved?”
“Mmm….”
“Oh, there’s another article here!”
[His Majesty the Emperor has declared that ‘the courage to call wrong by its true name is the mark of youth,’ and has ordered that the stone wall be preserved accordingly.]
[Luar Fire Brigade Commander, Dismissed]
[Count WelXX, arrested by Imperial Knights for attempting to deface the stone wall
Count X of City X states, “I have nothing to say”
Count XXko, recently embroiled in divorce proceedings…]
“Still, the Magic Saint must be nobility, no question about it.”
“Right. How else could she have gotten into the Imperial Palace?”
“The only person who wasn’t nobility but entered the Imperial Palace that day was Seraphina…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“Mmm….”
“Seraphina, wake up!”
Smack!
“What the—!”
I jolted upright.
My colleagues, who’d been chattering away over the Newspaper before morning roll call, snickered as they looked at me.
“Looks like someone had fun at the ball—can’t even keep her eyes open.”
“How did you graduate the Academy if you sleep all day like this?”
“I didn’t graduate…….”
I’m still just a student in good standing.
“Seraphina, did you see the Magic Saint?”
Eli asked.
“No. She was already gone by the time I got there.”
“What a waste! That was a real chance to see her.”
“It’s fine.”
I can just look in a mirror.
I consoled my disappointed colleagues.
The people were absolutely thrilled to hear that the nobles who’d been enjoying their party while fire ravaged the neighborhoods where common folk lived had been humiliated.
Outraged nobles started throwing bounties on her left and right, and within days my bounty had climbed to fifty million gold.
I was tempted to turn myself in.
But instead of anyone trying to claim that bounty and catch the Magic Saint, everyone was insisting they’d hide her instead.
‘I was determined to keep my head down at first. How did it come to this?’
If I got arrested and thrown in prison now, there’d be no one to bail me out.
And yet I didn’t feel particularly anxious, or even upset about it…….
Maybe I was bolder than I thought?
“Sister, what about these people?”
Eli, who’d swapped out the Imperial Herald for a weekly magazine called , unfolded a page. “Did you see these people?”
[Shocking! Marian Devocion and Count Shortrek Welshiko Divorce!]
[Marian Devocion Announcing Upcoming Memoir on Marriage to Count Shortrek… Titled ‘A Divorcée Like Me’]
[Count Shortrek Hospitalized, Citing Humiliation]
[Bonus: Whatever Happened to the Missing Pink-Haired Heiress?]
“Ah! I did see these people.”
This is a story I can paint in vivid detail.
The more this tale spread, the more incensed Count Shortrek would become, confined to his sickbed.
“Everyone, gather around!”
I’ve got a funny story to tell you!
I rounded up my colleagues, their eyes glowing with anticipation.
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“I need to use the restroom.”
“Oh, Sister!”
“Oh, Seraphina!”
Giggling!
She laughed and bolted for the bathroom.
‘I need to shake off this drowsiness.’
She’d splash some water on her face. She was just reaching for the door when—
Someone creaked it open.
“What?”
Seriously? Who just barges in to share the bathroom? Did she have no privacy at all?
“Seraphina….”
It was Johann Mendelssohn Handel Beethoven Bach Schubert Mozart Debussy Park Yeon Strauss III.
He squeezed his small frame through the doorway, his face crumpled and scrunched as he looked up at her.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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